


Underwater, But Not To Drown

by mmmdraco



Category: Free!
Genre: Drabble, M/M, Swimming Anime - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-02
Updated: 2013-05-02
Packaged: 2017-12-10 04:40:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/781874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmmdraco/pseuds/mmmdraco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haruka liked to lose himself in the water.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Underwater, But Not To Drown

Haruka liked to lose himself in the water. It was an easy thing when he spent so many of his strokes with the rushing sound of water going past his ears as he strove for one more meter before needing to turn his head for a breath or one less second on his time or even a more efficient kick-flip at the end of the lane. Swimming was so much of his life that his parents joked that he was really a dolphin and that was why they knew better than to expect grandchildren.

He hadn't yet told them the other reason; the one that made him want to hide beneath the surface of the water anyway: Makoto. Well, it wasn't just Makoto. But it was men. And Makoto... Haruka had discovered with him that he had a type. Tall with lithe muscles, a strange sense of humor, a friendly disposition... He scowled slightly, remembering how he'd thought, at one point, that Rin, his rival, was the kind of person that he wanted. They were both too dire, though; too invested. 

They'd kissed underwater once, he and Rin, years before when they'd been in the same swim club. It had been a dare; one set forth by Makoto, but likely whispered to him by Nagisa, treading water beside him all the time to try to stay in the shade that went along with having been tall years before any of the rest of them were... though Nagisa seemed destined for the lower end of the height chart. 

This year, Rei was joining them. He was the same height as Rin and wore glasses and was too serious about everything, and Haruka was glad because he couldn't confuse that in the locker room with Makoto, not like he could sometimes when the whistle sounded and he glanced down the lanes during the other style events at a match and the glint of the water hid hair color and swimsuit color and let him see nothing but the pale flesh underneath the ripples at the surface and he was rooting for the sight of a leg executing a powerful kick and an arm arcing cleanly through the water rather than for a name, or his own team.

In a lot of ways, Rei was Rin's replacement. Except that, in Haruka's mind, Makoto had replaced the spots where Rin had kissed him, brushed against him as they practiced their kicks along the poolside, even snapped him with a towel after they changed out... It had to be enough. Makoto and his shovel that he used to pick up nearly everything to strengthen the muscles in his back... Haruka told himself it was enough. He hadn't even made any kind of confession yet, but he wanted to settle his feelings before the upcoming competition season.

Haruka poised himself on the diving platform, his toes carefully placed with his fingers pointing toward them and his spine parallel to the pool's top. He drew a long breath and let it out and dragged in another, a deeper one, before his mind provided the sound of a whistle and he jumped, letting himself feel the world around him soaring past before he slid into the water, arms already moving.

His thoughts were on swimming now and being one with the water. Everything else... That could wait.


End file.
